Easter with the fam

Easter morning

Discovering a find on the hunt

Playing with a new matching egg game

Very pleased with the Easter Bunny's selection of Calico Critters

Mmm....candy

Our little boy wonder

William may not be a man of many words, but he has incredible focus and determination with pretty good spatial skills to boot!

The kiddos

I went upstairs to get Lily's clothes for school and came back down to a little boy sitting on top of his high chair just as happy as can be. Note: He was left sitting IN the high chair. This little guy is going to give me a run for my money.

Lily attended a birthday party at ColdStone Creamery today. I would have never thought of this venue for a birthday party, but it was great. The kids took a "behind the scenes" tour and learned how they make their own ice cream. They then got to pick out their ice cream flavor and mix in 2 toppings behind the counter, like the professionals. :) What a great idea!

We have had a very full weekend so far with lots of family adventures, and I'll update with more pics and stories soon!

Stinky!

2011 Easter egg decorating

Concentrating on her technique

Our Jackson Pollock-inspired Easter eggs (Lily's left; mine right)

We experimented with a lot of different decorating techniques this year. This one involved acrylic paint applied to crumpled aluminum foil which was then wrapped around the egg. Lily probably liked this technique the best, but I would not recommend acrylic paint for really young kids since it is not a washable paint.

I thought this decorating idea was genius due to its simplicity and use of things you already have (and no mess!) After you boil the eggs, you simply use crayons to decorate the warm eggs. The wax melts onto the shell and makes it really easy to create fun designs. It is also more fun than just dipping them into dye and having to wait forever for the dye to take.

The eggs I made for Lily & William

Lily really wanted to make animal critters out of Easter eggs, so we used plastic eggs to make a few. Lily set this up so that the dog is chasing the cat, and the cat is chasing the mouse. :)

The "double seater" according to Lily

We love perennials!

A couple weekends ago, we (read: Carl) were inspired to do a little yardwork. We finally raked all the leaves out of our flowerbeds. From the Fall, you ask? Oh yes, from the Fall. I'd like to say we did this strategically to insulate the flowebeds for the winter, but really it was just a matter of priorities (read: laziness). We were shocked to uncover some beautiful flowers already well underway for the Spring. This will make planting a few annuals here and there this year a breeze! We haven't mulched yet due to the annuals that still need to go in, so you'll have to focus on the flowers below and ignore everything around them.

Children's Festival

The college at which I teach had a free Children's Festival on Saturday. I was so impressed! Too bad it wasn't advertised as well as it could have been because they really did an excellent job. Lily designed a great canvas bag to be used on future library trips, made a fun tie-dyed t-shirt, painted a flower pot and planted a zinnia, among other things. A great way to spend a chilly afternoon for sure!

Little Red Riding Hood Opera

Entranced

Future stars

What a difference a year makes!

Just over a year ago

My big boy now!

Climbing up the ladder all by himself

Little monkey

William really looks up to his big sister

Side-by-side sand table play

William loves to throw Terra's ball into the plants and watch Terra dig around for it...hours of entertainment!

Hangin' at the homestead

Tea for two with Ms. Duckie

Terra snuggles up with a stuffed animal

Go Cards!!

William helps with the yard work

Lily plays with a frog that Carl found while working in the yard. I don't know if we have ever done any outdoor activity without Carl catching some little critter for Lily to examine. Lily loves it!

The Deetz fam

William A head full of blond curls, big blue eyes, long eyelashes, and a smile that can brighten even the darkest of days - who couldn't love this kid? William continues to be a phenomenal sleeper. When I lay him down for his naps, he blows me kisses as I close the door and almost makes me want to run back in, scoop him up, and smoother him with kisses.....almost. He typically sleeps 7 to 7 with two 2-hour naps during the day. At almost 18 months, we've also now gotten to the point in which I can keep him up and do only one nap during the day if need be. Although it's not preferred, he can now handle it. Like most kids his age, William loves to turn lights on and off. He also loves to dance. Watching William and Carl dance together is a sight to be seen for sure; let's just say rhythm is not a gonna get them anytime soon. William also enjoys riding his bike, taking walks in the stroller and swinging in the backyard. He is getting better with having greater variety in his diet but can still be somewhat unpredictable in this area. Language had a slow start, but as expected, it is beginning to pick up - not like a whirlwind, but more like a nice spring breeze. From the beginning of his language journey, William said "Thank you" fairly clearly. Now we are starting to hear words like shoes, crackers, stinky, quack, and Lily with consistency and more clarity. As I've said before, William is a force of destruction like nothing I've ever experienced. The pantry remains to be his favorite target. He is so tall that he can reach almost anything on the table which results in lots and lots of spills. For things he can't reach, he chucks his sippy cup at the object he wishes to knock down. And let me tell you, this kid has incredible aim. He blows through any and all drawers like a tornado and quite enjoys tormenting Terra in various ways. William also loves to hide things, resulting in things like a sippy cup of milk being found in the play kitchen a week later. You can imagine. Lily I simply love being around this girl. Her mind is an absolute wonder to me. She is the great communicator and will talk your ear off if you let her. And most of the time, I let her because I love to hear all of her insightful commentary about the world. Lily's strongest asset continues to be her astounding vocabulary. Almost daily, I am surprised by the words she uses correctly and can apply to different situations, like when I told her that it was bedtime the other night, and she said, "That stinks worse than a rotting carcass". Really? Tonight she used the word "treacherous" in casual conversation (with William, no less). Love it. Lily continues to become more self-sufficient which is really fun to watch (and of course, makes life easier for us). She typically wakes up about 1/2 hour before I'm ready to get up for the day and has been going downstairs, getting a piece of fruit from the plate, washing it, and eating it while watching cartoons until I get up. This is a little slice of heaven for me. Since I usually use some part of the weekend for work, Carl has been taking Lily on outdoor adventures while William naps. She LOVES these one-on-one times with her dad. They've done it all from 3-mile walks to kite-flying across the street. Lily and William particularly love going in the backyard with Carl because he lets them get so, so messy. For example, he creates a water slide, running water from the hose on their slide. This creates a giant mud puddle at the bottom of the slide which they love to land in. He often lets them wet the sand in their sandbox for some good castle-building. Luckily, they understand that these activities take place on daddy's watch only. Mama don't play those games. Lily is currently taking gymnastics and dance. She was supposed to start t-ball last Saturday, but it was rained out. We are really looking forward to starting though! We are currently in the planning stages for summer camps and classes. We've narrowed it down to about 8-10 camps/classes, but obviously need to cut that down more so that every day of her summer break does not have a planned activity! Carl Carl re-injured his back recently and is having a long road to recovery. Currently, he is in physical therapy then will probably get an MRI in order to eventually get a much-needed steroid injection. Otherwise, he is in the last rotation of his third year of residency. Yay! Next year (ending in June '12), Carl will complete his last year of residency and will start his fellowship. Carl chose St. Louis University's fellowship program, so we are staying in St. Louis at least one more year! Double yay! He has also had numerous publications and won several awards recently for his research. I couldn't be any more proud of him and all that he has accomplished while still keeping his family top priority. He is a special kind of guy, and I'm honored to be celebrating 10 years of marriage with him next month. Me I'm teaching 4 classes this semester so I've been incredibly busy, hence less blogging. We've been up to all of our usual, fun activities, I just don't have the time/energy to document them. (Sorry!) Speaking of energy, I'm slowing regaining more energy as we move into the second trimester of pregnancy. There were many days in the past weeks, that I would literally fall asleep while sitting. More than once, I had to have Lily watch a movie while I slept for William's afternoon nap. Things that are different this time around: I've definitely been more tired than in past pregnancies. I've actually been LESS sick! I've thrown up an average of 1 time per day as opposed to a good 3 times per day in the past. I've got my fingers crossed that the duration of this sick period will be shorter as well. We'll see! Food/drink preferences have probably been the most dramatic change. Water made me incredibly nauseous in past pregnancies and now is about the only liquid I can drink. Things that are sweet at all make me very sick and ranch dressing is a big no-no. Health-wise, these things are not all that bad. I don't usually have any strong cravings but pasta has been the food that has caused me the least amount of problems. One thing that is very consistent with past pregnancies is that the #1 cause of making me sick is temperature changes. Even slight changes in temperature will do it (like going from the first level to the second level of our house), but going from inside to outside is the big one. I've thrown up in more streets in the past weeks than I care to remember. I have a doctor's appointment today that should hopefully be non-eventful. We will again find out the sex of the baby at 20 weeks and let everyone know. We will again not reveal the name, but we are certainly open to suggestions at this point as we truly have no idea!

It's a dirty job...

You said to flour the kids, right?

No?!?!